You will never guess who is whining over global warming

[Bob]

You can't see the sun in some of their cities and NOW they are calling for action.

I believe a lot they produce blows East to the USA.

http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/98...major-projects

Beijing (ANTARA News) - Climate change threatens some of Chinas most important infrastructure projects, Chinas top meteorologist warned in a state newspaper, adding the countrys rate of warming was higher than the global average.

Zheng Guoguang, head of Chinas Meteorological Administration, told the weekly newspaper the Study Times that the uptick in recent weather disasters such as floods, typhoons, droughts and heatwaves had a "big connection" to climate change.

Such catastrophes were a threat to big-ticket schemes such as the Three Gorges Dam and a high-altitude railway to Tibet, he said.

"Against the backdrop of the global warming, the risks faced by our large engineering projects have increased," Zheng told the newspapers latest edition, published on Monday.

"Global warming affects the safety and stability of these big projects, as well as their operations and economic effectiveness, technological standards and engineering methods," he added in the paper, published by the Central Party School, which trains rising officials.

Chinas rate of warming was "at an obviously higher rate" than the global average, with the north of the country warming faster than the south and winters faster than the summer, Zheng said.

"The first decade of this century was the hottest in the past 100 years," he added.

Dealing with climate change was necessary for China to put its economy on a more sustainable growth path, Zheng said, something the countrys leadership has been aiming for.

"Climate change is a lever which can push our countrys economic transformation."

Coal accounts for about 60 percent of Chinas CO2 emissions, which are causing massive health problems because of the smog they generate.

China, the worlds biggest emitter of climate-changing greenhouse gases, has sought to shift increasingly to cleaner burning hydrocarbons such as natural gas and to renewable energy.

In a joint announcement with the United States last year, Beijing said it would aim to peak its fast-rising emissions "around" 2030, and the United States said it would seek to cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent below

2005 levels by 2025.

[waltky]

Global warming contributing to earlier springs...

Spring Comes Earlier to Urban Environments
May 26, 2016 - Spring comes earlier to dense cities, and while that might be great for city gardeners and outdoorsy types, it might be bad for native birds and insects.

Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison say plants in urban areas begin budding earlier in the spring than their suburban counterparts because cities act as “heat islands” due to the amount of concrete and pavement and relative lack of vegetation. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the “annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1 to 3 degrees Celsius warmer than its surroundings.” The observations were made in Madison, Wisconsin, thermometers placed around the city. The measurements were then compared to satellite imagery showing when vegetation began to turn green.

They found that the urban growing season was not lengthened uniformly in the city. For example, in the areas with the highest density, the growing season was extended by a week, but parks had relatively normal growing season length. "With a better understanding of the impacts of urbanization on vegetation, we can create more sustainable cities that behave more similarly to the natural areas they have replaced," says lead author Samuel Zipper, of the UW-Madison Water Sustainability and Climate Project, a program funded by the National Science Foundation. "Every little bit of greenness counts within a city."

The skyline of Japan's capital, Tokyo.

But using satellite imagery has drawbacks, as researchers said the types of plants need to be accounted for. For example, grassy lawns in the suburbs became green before trees in urban areas, even though the temperatures were higher in the city. "The degree to which the potential growing season gets longer is related to urban density, but the actual growing season depends on what is growing on the ground," Zipper said.

Researchers say that the earlier urban spring could have “cascading effects on urban ecosystems that may be harmful to birds, butterflies and other wildlife in search of food and habitat.” While the study only examined one city, the researchers say it furthers understanding about how urban development can influence a variety of natural cycles such as plant growth and water and carbon cycles.

http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-s...s/3347339.html

[waltky]

We just had our hottest October...

Report: 2011 to 2015 Hottest Period on Record
November 08, 2016 - The five years from 2011 through 2015 were the hottest on record, and the warming is speeding up trends of rising sea levels and more extreme weather worldwide, according to a new report.

The World Meteorological Organization released its analysis of the current global climate as a United Nations climate change conference opened in Marrakesh, Morocco on Tuesday. The report says global temperatures over the past five years were an average of 0.57 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures measured during the second half of the last century.

A man cools off from a public tap after filling bottles during intense hot weather in Karachi, Pakistan

It says 2015 was the hottest single year on record, with 2014 coming in second. The report says global sea surface temperatures also hit a new peak in 2015, and that Arctic sea ice, the ice sheet on Greenland and northern hemisphere snow cover are all in decline. One exception to the trend is sea ice around Antarctica, which was above average for much of the five-year period.

The WMO says the warming trend is the result of man-made greenhouse gases, and has made extreme weather events more likely. Examples highlighted in the report include the 2010 to 2012 East African drought, which killed more than 250,000 people, 2015 heat waves in India and Pakistan that killed more than 4,000, and Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 7,800 people in the Philippines in 2013.

http://www.voanews.com/a/climate-201...d/3586731.html